Mayor John Tory was the first dignitary to speak on the stage, under the giant blue-and-white billboard celebrating the Toronto Argonauts as Grey Cup champions, and he was the first to get to the point: “We need all of you to go, when you get back to your home or back to your office, to argonauts.ca, and sign up for tickets for next year.”

He continued, a preacher to the converted: “We need you in the stadium.”

The audience, which covered two-thirds of Nathan Phillips Square, was comprised of exactly the fans who had already been out to BMO Field. They were the ones who arrived early on Tuesday afternoon, giving up their lunch hour to fly the flag — often literally — of their Canadian Football League team.

And they still applauded, because they understood the context.

Nobody is more annoyed by stories about the lack of CFL fan support in Toronto than Toronto fans, a band of stout supporters who have followed the team through bankruptcy,...

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